Australia divided over plans to shoot urban kangaroos

Australians are in uproar over plans to turn unleash marksmen on one of their
nation's favourite symbols after an invasion of wild kangaroos caused mayhem
in Canberra.

Canberra has been invaded by thousands of fearless eastern grey kangaroos, which are now a common sight hopping around public parks and suburbsPhoto: AP

Mark Chipperfield in Sydney

10:49PM GMT 17 Mar 2009

With much of the country still in drought, the landlocked capital city has been invaded by thousands of fearless eastern grey kangaroos, which are now a common sight hopping around public parks and suburbs.

Residents complain, however, that the creatures are a traffic hazard since they often hop across busy freeways, and this week one kangaroo terrified a family by jumping through an open window and running amok in their home.

But plans for a mass cull by the government of the Australian Capital Territory, which is responsible for the day-to-day running of Canberra, have been branded "sickening" by animal rights campaigners, who have vowed to stage mass demonstrations if it goes ahead.

The row comes in the wake of recent ordeal of Swiss-born Canberra resident Beat Ettlin, who was asleep with his partner Verity Brennan and daughter Beatrix, 9, when a marauding kangaroo leapt onto their bed one night.

"My initial thought when I was half-awake was: 'it's a lunatic ninja coming through the window'," said Mr Ettlin, 42, a chef. "It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in."

The family cowered under the blankets while the injured animal jumped on top of them, gouging holes in furniture and smearing blood all over the walls.

Wearing only his underpants, Mr Ettlin eventually put the berserk two-metre beast in a headlock and dragged it out the front door, getting badly scratched in the process. The government now believes that a cull is the quickest and most humane way to ensure that another householder does not end up more badly hurt.

"There are probably more eastern grey kangaroos in Canberra now that in any time in the last 100 years," said the territory's chief minister Jon Stanhope. "I think we have perhaps tried too hard not to cull." He added that alternatives such as mass sterilization had proved unworkable, and that trapping the kangaroos and trucking them to remote areas would be too expensive.

But conservation groups claim reports of a population explosion among kangaroos have been exaggerated. "The whole thing is a propaganda exercise to try to get public support for killing kangaroos," says Pat O'Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia.

A recent government survey found that 17 percent of Canberra drivers had collided with a kangaroo at sometime in the past – although 82 percent of respondents said they liked the idea of wild kangaroos living in the city.